Willie Limond has spent the past few months running up and down the Campsies but the Scottish fight hero reckons he’s already scaled a mountain getting into shape for his crack at Ricky Burns.

The fight legends will collide in the Braehead Arena on Friday night in front of 5000 fans. And Limond admitted it’s been a heck of a journey shedding the FOUR stone required to get back to his fighting weight. The 44-year-old said: “To be honest, I’m proud of myself. This is where I feel happy – right in the trenches. When you look at me three or four years ago, I would never have thought I’d be in this shape again. My weight was terrible. When we started talking about this fight I got on the scales as he was talking about fighting at 10-and-a-half stone.

“I thought I’d be about 13-and-a-half stone. I couldn’t believe it when it said I was 14st 9lbs. I must admit, there was a bit of me thinking it was too much. But I got stuck into the training, a good bit fell off. But I’m not going to bulls***, you ask questions of yourself. You have a couple of bad spars and you go home in bits, and you think, ‘f*** this’.

“But then you get stronger, physically and mentally, and you remember all the other camps where I’ve gone through that, even at 23 or 24. You have to drag yourself through those dark moments. But you get there – and I’m here feeling great.

“I’ve been getting out on the runs. I’m not a guy for running around in circles. I prefer to get out on the road, go running up the hills, up the Campsies and stuff. I love being out in the fresh air with the backpack on. It’s good for the soul – but maybe not the soles of your feet! I could not have trained any harder or been in better shape. Let’s get it on.”

Limond and Burns go back more than 20 years but he insisted there will be no old pals’ act tomorrow evening. It’s strictly business and the veteran is determined to prove a few folk wrong again. Limond – whose son Jake is also on a packed undercard – said: “The pressure is on him. What happens if he gets beaten by a wee 44-year-old guy from Garthamlock?

“And I’m serious – I’m capable of pulling this off. It’s funny, there are a lot of people who know the both of us and they are saying, ‘We have to be honest Willie, we want you to win – but we don’t think you will’.

“This is people who are close to me – the b******s! That’s fine with me though. I’ll stick that in my pocket and use it as motivation. I’ve heard it all before. I’ve been an underdog a million times in the ring – and I’ve defied the odds. I’m at my happiest being the underdog.

“There’s big respect there. But there’s also a desire to win. I’m a bit like Ricky, I’ve never been on to disrespect opponents, whether I liked them or not. I might try to wind them up! There’s a wee bit of back and forth but that’s all part of the game. I know he’s been stalking my social media. I haven’t bothered looking at his as I know what I’ll see – he’ll be training like a maniac! Neither one of us will take a step back.”